The catalogue includes all visual and textual works that are a part of the EnGendered Species Exhibitions.
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Jessica Wimbley | Los Angeles, California
A photograph of Los Angeles, artist Jessica Wimbley depicts herself dressed as a “Lawn Jockey” and standing in front of various buildings in diverse communities. The lawn jockey is an icon of socio-economic status and symbolic of class, race, and gender roles. In short, the iconic lawn jockey is a public display of constructed identity. Wimbley exploits this icon by dressing up as the “Lawn Jockey” and, as a woman, explores the possibilities of performance as a male icon by asserting her own identity and femaleness into a “sign”. Instead of simply describing a commodified object that has become a desired symbol for class aspirations, she demonstrates it by appropriating the icon and performing it. She challenges the norms of sexual identity by using her body to give life to a stereotype. Wimbley can also transport her body to any neighborhood, and as the object/icon/person, she explores the terrains of Los Angeles to create a kind of documentation. We don’t expect to see a lawn jockey in a middle class neighborhood. It is clearly out of place, calling the stereotype into question. By crossing fixed boundaries, Wimbley performs a new connection between the icon, herself, and the middle class neighborhood. In this respect, difference and sameness are not absolutes. Wimbley’s piece is a powerful example of how gender is constructed and performed through other distinctions like race and class.
Jessica Wimbley has an M.F.A. in painting from the University of California at Davis. She has exhibited her work internationally and currently resides in Los Angeles.
- by Karen Roberts
Jessica Wimbley
Lawn Jockey in Middle Class Neighborhood, 2005
Photograph
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